The Hazlewood program, a state-requirement that public higher education institutions waive qualified veterans’ tuition and mandatory fees, could cost the Legislature more than $1 billion by 2018, according an estimate from the Legislative Budget Board.

Currently, individual colleges and universities absorb the tuition losses but higher education officials and veteran advocates have recently urged lawmakers to put money behind their policy, which many are calling an unfunded mandate. The total value of forgone revenue for schools through the program jumped from about $24 million in 2009 to $110 million in 2012.

“There wasn’t any information state agencies would’ve gotten that would have indicated this was going to go gangbusters like it has,” said Dan Weaver, assistant commissioner for the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, at a House Higher Education committee hearing Wednesday.

The committee mulled possible ways to partially or fully fund the program through the Legislature, including state Rep. Tryon Lewis’ HB 690.

Lewis’ bill aims to structure how the Legislature would allocate funds for the program and would only apply if lawmakers decide to appropriate money. The bill, one of many House bills aimed at reforming the financial aid program, does not ask for any specific amount.

The measure would put the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in charge of any state funds appropriated by the Legislature to the program. The board would use data to determine a how much each school is foregoing and provide proportional funds to schools based on those statistics.

“The impact of these exemptions is not uniform or across the board,” said Lewis. “Some of our schools are hit really hard.”

The Hazlewood Act, enacted in 1919, provides free tuition at any public university for Texas residents who entered the service in the state, served six months and were discharged on honorable terms. The Hazlewood Legacy Act expanded the law in 2009 by allowing veterans who did not use their tuition exemption to transfer them to a dependent under the age of 25.

The committee left the bill pending after more than an hour and a half of discussion and it is still unclear whether the Legislature will fund the program.